Poetry has somehow acquired a reputation as a “serious” art form, a sign of a decent education and a memorable funeral. But when you look at the works of the greats, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to Luke Kennard’s recent triumph at the Forward Prize, is the literary art of laughter. The last few decades have seen the rise of numerous performance poets who are not only conquering Instagram and venues, but also taking a slice of the book market with their publications. There has never been a better time for publishers to sign one of the rising stars of performance poetry, whose work acts as a divining rod for audiences in a way that marketing budgets can only dream of.
Every literary explosion has its roots in a tradition. As poet and writer Pete Bearder, aka Pete the Temp, argues: “The subgenre of stand-up poetry, for example, has hardly been talked about.” Pete sets out to set this right in his book. Stage Invasion: Poetry and the Renaissance of the Spoken Word. Demand for books on performance poetry – its history and how to write and perform it – is rising at the reception of the National Poetry Library, a demand that publishers should be aware of.
There are some strong and influential voices driving this interest. John Cooper Clarke rode the wave of punk like a grouse in a suit, pushing poetry in new directions. John Hegley has smoothly serenaded audiences of all ages. Before them both came the Scottish surrealist Ivor Cutler, who took poetry off the page – and the stage, for that matter – and into everyday life. A visitor once searched the National Poetry Library for Ivor Cutler’s poems and left after a life-changing encounter with the poet himself reading one of his poems to this one-man audience. There was a time when it seemed that the careers of some comedians – Jenny Eclair, for example – might straddle poetry and stand-up comedy. It should be remembered that most of the comedians named above were supported by John Peel, who gave them a huge audience through radio plays.
Broadcasting is therefore a key element. The success of the new stand-up poets is supported by entire platforms: Instagram and TikTok. These tools allow poets to reach the masses directly, with the added benefit of fans feeling like they have discovered their work for themselves. This direct and personal relationship with the audience gives publishers a huge advantage when it comes to exploiting the work of stand-up poets in book form, as their fan base is often already secured. Tim Key, for example, has over 100,000 followers on Instagram and a regular slot on BBC Radio 4 with his Poetry Programme. He has even appeared on Inside Number 9. It’s no wonder his books are selling like hot cakes.
Although the new stand-up poets often sit at home to perform their videos for social media, this new wave is reaching more people than ever before.
Brian Bilston has fully immersed himself in the poetry scene, recently appearing at the Ledbury and Brighton festivals. He has a slightly more literary flair, playing with the forms of poetry on the page. You wouldn’t think such details would be important to a stand-up poet, but for Bilston they are; you don’t want a clever viewer checking his not-so-successful line breaks later. Bilston’s poem “Selected Early Writings of the Poets” shows him immersed in a number of earlier poems, a devotion to the art form that demands audience interest and knowledge of literary antecedents:
Roses are red,
In contrast to these daffodils,
I wander alone,
As a giraffe cloud.
It is no surprise that Bilston’s books translate well into book sales from social media and performative spaces. His Someone’s diarypublished by Picador, has over 1,000 four-star reviews on Amazon and over 2,000 reviews on Goodreads.
A surefire test of enthusiasm for the genre is another form of spread: word of mouth. Last week, a colleague sent me a video of World Poetry Slam Champ Harry Baker, whose “Poem About How Great My Knees Are” was not only liked 30,000 times, but shared on half of those occasions – a testament to the human urge to spread the joy of poetry when we feel it touches us. “The legend about my knees is that bees use them as a point of comparison.”
The good news for publishers is that stand-up poetry is a sprawling genre and there are hundreds of poets flexing their throat muscles and building their profiles in preparation for their first book deal. There are a few publishers leading the way here, with Burning Eye Books and Flapjack Press among the driving forces in this area. As well as individual poetry books, there is also a lot of interest in lost underground culture, particularly from the 1980s, which publishers can capitalise on.
Bearder argues: “Stand-up poetry, and British spoken word more broadly, have deep roots in the alternative cabaret scene of the 1980s. Here poetry existed alongside drag acts, comedians, musicians and theatre troupes. In alternative cabarets anything could happen, with costumes, props and a manic willingness to experiment.”
Apples and Snakes does a great job of making these secret histories visible through its online archive, and there is huge potential for novels and memoirs that take their cues from the contributions of the likes of Ian Saville (the socialist wizard) and Randolph the Remarkable, who, Bearder says, could lift a washbasin with his stomach. One of my favorite performance poets of the last few decades, Salena Godden, has flexed her literary muscles in fiction, with her debut novel Mrs. Death misses death to win the Indie Book Award.
Although the new stand-up poets often sit at home to perform their videos for social media, this new wave is reaching more people than ever before. Publishers should get ahead of the drag race and get their book deals in place to compile the poems for their fans – as well as the memories of incredible lives and times.
